Smith, Tony, 1912–80, American sculptor, b. South Orange, N.J., studied Art Students League, New York City (1933–37), New Bauhaus, Chicago (1937–38). Trained as a painter and architect and for a time associated with Frank Lloyd Wright, Smith had his own architectural firm during the 1940s. He turned to sculpture in the 1950s, applying architectural principles to his monumental black steel constructions. Allied with minimalism, he worked with simple geometrical modules combined on a three-dimensional grid, creating drama through simplicity and scale. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.C., National Gallery, Washington, D.C., and other leading museums. The artist Kiki Smith is his daughter.
See studies by L. R. Lippard (1972), K. Kertess and J. Rachner (1996), R. Storr, ed. (1998), and R. Tuttle (2002).
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